Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: We need to find ways to scale this up

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Mar 24, 2022, at 11:10 AM, Marvin Berkowitz via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> I fully agree with issues of large buy-in being a problem for most 
> seniors.Consequently, I am looking for rental.  If anybody has info, please 
> send on to me.

There is a book comparing a rental cohousing community in Japan and an 
ownership model in Canada called "Collaborative Happiness: Building the Good 
Life in Urban Cohousing Communities" by Catherine Kingfisher. Kingfisher is an 
anthropologist who studied these two communities over a 6 year period, living 
in each one and arranging for a small group from each community to visit the 
other. (I’m writing a review for Communities Magazine.) It is published by a 
small academic publisher, unfortunately, so it is relatively expensive — $35 
for the Kindle edition. It is part of a series of 7 books on Life, Culture, and 
Aging: Global Transformations.

https://amzn.to/3usXbvJ

In Japan cohousing is called Collective Housing. Kankanmori Collective Housing 
is in Tokyo. It occupies the 2nd and 3rd floors of a 12 storey building. It 
includes 29 apartments ranging from 269-650 SF. (NOTE THE SIZES.) The space was 
designed and the community formed by a group of founders working with the 
Japanese founder of cohousing, architect Ikuko Koyabe. 

All units open onto common space and the residents hang out in the common space 
commonly. It isn’t a “destination" but a place to be. It is occupied at all 
time except for mornings just after everyone has gone to work.

Rental contracts are for 3 years with unlimited renewals. All renters are 
required to participate in the community—and they have checklists and 
committees that coordinate this. Cooking in rotation is required, everyone is 
expected to serve on 2 committees, and there are a few other requirements. 
Everyone comes to meetings. Partly because the Japanese culture is 
characterized by precision, there are very detailed orientation materials so 
new residents can acclimate very quickly. They have also developed procedures 
for many things so they are always done the same way, making it easier for new 
residents to get involved and understand what to do. There is little or no 
friction from integrating new residents.

They have approximately twice the number of move-ins as the Quayside, the 
community in Canada. The rental community has an average of 4 turnovers per 
year, but they also have a very strong revisiting rate. Many people come back 
for holidays or just to visit.

I haven’t studied the financing closely but the community is fully in charge of 
the budget and the use of the space as ownership communities in the US. Other 
countries have very different subsidy schemes and property definitions so it is 
not clear if they are subsidized to any extent but the population demographics 
in terms of occupations and household sizes are the same as in US cohousing. 
The community does offer some discounts for families, but the community makes 
these decisions, not the state.

The issue with rentals is the same with ownership — someone has to have the 
money up front. The building has to be built before anyone can pay to live in 
it.  It might, however, be easier to get HUD support for a rental community, 
and Kankanmori would be a good example. The have been very successful since 
2003. 

People have been very dubious of rental cohousing in the US so it is a great 
step forward to have this book and this model. The key seems to be that the 
building is not “government owned or governed.” The community is self governing 
and self supporting (so far as I can understand).

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org